They Register 300 Assaults of “Pirates Huachicoleros” in High Seas Since 2017

The Navy Commission will request the Secretariats of Security, National Defense and Navy, as well as the Attorney General of the Republic, to elaborate a permanent plan of protection, surveillance and patrol of platforms and oil installations and of Pemex ships, to prevent and eradicate the huachicol in the high seas.

At a point of agreement, the deputy Irineo Molina Espinoza (Morena) said that criminal groups have found another way to steal it: at sea, people aboard fast boats and with weapons, assault platforms, facilities and boats located in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

He indicated that the so-called “huachicolero pirates” attack and assault cargo ships or tankers and once they have subjected the crews, through hoses, they extract the fuel. These cases have occurred repeatedly on the coasts of Campeche and Tabasco.

Another way to operate these “pirates huachicoleros” is approaching with violence the oil platforms, taking advantage of being on the high seas, isolated and defenseless, because the staff that works in them is exposed and without ways to repel the theft and aggression of these delinquents

“This new form of fuel theft has been aroused at least 300 times since 2017, but in recent months these thieves seized equipment, materials and valuables, processed or raw hydrocarbons and the number of assailants and speedboats with which they carry out their misdeeds every time is increasing, as well as the level of aggressiveness and violence that these subjects are used to perform these behaviors, “he explained.

Molina Espinoza argued that the most assaulted platforms and from where hydrocarbons have been illegally stolen in large volumes, is the Campeche probe and the most affected: Bolontiku, Kab, Kix, May, Sinan and Tsimín, which are part of the southwest marine region of the Gulf of Mexico, which covers 11 thousand square kilometers of deep water where hydrocarbon deposits exist.

They have also suffered the attacks of the “pirates huachicoleros” to a lesser extent the maritime areas of the northwest, where the Cantarell complex is located, and the southwest, between the littorals of Campeche and Tabasco.

He said that although Pemex has tried to strengthen the security of its ships, platforms and offshore installations, and the Ministry of the Navy has persecuted the criminal groups, it has not been possible to inhibit the theft of fuel and other goods at the hands of the “Pirates”, a situation that must be faced as soon as possible by various dependencies of the federal public administration and the Attorney General’s Office.

The deputy of Morena said that there are many negative and harmful effects generated by the theft of fuel in any of its forms, the national heritage and economy, and is a problem that must be attacked with all the rigor.